yiSTRONOMT of the BRAHMINS. 137 



down, rendered the principles, on which they were founded, ex- 

 tremely obfcure ; and it required a commentator, as converfant 

 with agronomical calculation as the celebrated Cassini, to ex- 

 plain the meanmg of this curious fragment. After that pe- 

 riod, two other fets of aflronomical tables were fent to Paris, 

 by the miffionaries in Hindostan ; but they remained tin- 

 noticed, till the return of M. le Gentil from India, where he 

 had been to obferve the tranfit of Venus in 1769. 'i his Aca- 

 demician employed himfelf, during the long ftay, which his 

 zeal for fcience induced him to make in that country, in ac- 

 quiring a knowledge of the Indian allronomy. The Brahmins 

 thought they faw, in the bufinefs of an Alhonomer, the marks 

 of a Caji, that had fome atBnity to their own, and began to 

 converfe with M. le Gentil, more familiarly than with other 

 ftrangers. A learned Brahmin of Tirvalore, having made a 

 vifit to the French Aflronomer, inftruded him in the methods, 

 which he ufed for calculating eclipfes of the fun and moon, and 

 communicated to him the tables and rules, that are publiflied 

 in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, for 1772. Since 

 that time, the ingenious and eloquent author of the Hiftory of 

 Aftronomy, has dedicated an entire volume to the explanation, 

 and comparifon of thefe different tables, where he has deduced, 

 from them, many interefting conclufions *. The fubjedl indeed 

 merited his attention ; for the Indian aftronomy has all the pre- 

 cifion necefTary for refolving the great queftions, with refped to 

 its own origin and antiquity, and is by no means among the 

 number of thofe imperfedl fragments of ancient knowledge, 

 which can lead no farther than conjecflure, and which an Aflro- 

 nomer would gladly refign to the learned refearches of the An- 

 tiquary, or the Mythologifl. 



4. It is from thefe fources, and chiefly from the elaborate 

 inveftigations of the laft mentioned work, that 1 have feledled 



Vol. II. / the 



* Traits de I'Aftronomie Indienne et Orientate, par M. Bailly. Paris, 1787. 



